Noe Tanigawa

Arts & Culture Reporter

Noe Tanigawa

Noe Tanigawa covers art, culture, and ideas for Hawai'i Public Radio. Noe began working in news at WQXR, the New York Times' classical station in New York City, where she also hosted music programs from 1990-94. Prior to New York, Noe was a music host in jazz, rock, urban contemporary, and contemporary and classic Hawaiian music formats in Honolulu. Since arriving at HPR in 2002, Noe has received awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists Hawai'i Chapter, and an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for coverage of the budget process at the Hawai'i State Legislature. Noe holds a Masters in Painting from UH Mānoa. She maintains an active painting practice, and has recently returned from a 2015 residency with the U.S. Art in Embassies program in Palau. Noe is from Wailupe Valley in East O'ahu.

Ways to Connect

This day, December 7th, began with Japanese bombs and flames at Pearl Harbor in 1941, it was a pivotal event that prompted America’s entry into WWII. Today, seventy six years later, people commemorate the fateful day in various ways. As part of er series on local craft brewing, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa takes us to a small pub, the Brewseum, in Kaka‘ako where people sip home brews and marvel at unique WWII memorabilia.

A new exhibition at the UH Mānoa Art Gallery proposes a mysterious island floating in the Pacific. A nuclear submarine has been lost and the crew shipwrecks on the island, where they begin to discover secrets about its radioactive history. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports the exhibition offers artifacts and interactive technology for a full transmedia experience of Isotopia Pacifica.

Spanish artist Francisco Goya’s Disasters of War is an influential historical record of the human toll of the Peninsular War in the early 1800’s. The Honolulu Museum of Art’s new manga show, The Disasters of Peace, offers a rare view of Japan’s supposed post WWII “economic miracle.” HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports it’s an example of manga, or comic books, providing an important social perspective.

Amirah Sackett is the founder of the all-female American dance trio, 'We're Muslim, Don't Panic," a troupe that believes in hip-hop's power to inspire and bring about positive change. The Huffington Post recognized Sackett as one of "17 Muslim American Women Who Made America Great In 2016." HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on her upcoming performance in Honolulu.

Award winning writer and educator, M. Evelina Galang, runs into a lot of people who don’t realize that Koreans were not the only WWII “comfort women.” “Comfort women” is the euphemism for girls and women abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers across the so-called co-prosperity sphere, including Korea through China and the Philippines. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on Galang’s new book, Lolas' House, which opens a window onto the Filipina experience.

This Friday and Saturday, check out the 2.0 version of the Honolulu Printmakers’ annual sale. As always, a great venue for affordable fine art, the new Print and Book Fair is now offering handmade books, manga, and zines, showcasing the forward edge of printed objects. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Gamelan orchestras are traditional percussion ensembles from select parts of Indonesia. Since the 1970’s, Honolulu has been home to a sturdy local enclave of gamelan musicians, centered around a charismatic educator who taught history and culture along with the music. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports family and performers are flying into Honolulu for a special commemoration set for this Saturday, November 18.

The UH Mānoa Art Department is hosting a live drawing installation every day except Saturday, through November 22nd. Artist, Kosta Kulundzic combines religious and European iconography with everyday scenes from the 21st century. Since moving to Hawai‘i two years ago, Kulundzic has been juxtaposing local and western art imagery with particular ferocity. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Chozen-ji, the Zen temple in Kalihi valley, was known as a center for Honolulu powerbrokers in the 1980’s and 90’s. Political and business deals were reportedly hashed out around a low table, in front of calligraphy by Miyamoto Musashi. (Since the founding abbot, Tenshin Tanouye Roshi passed in 2003, the temple has completed the dojo, an archery range, a ceramics lab, and other facilities.) HPR’s Noe Tanigawa visited the temple as they prepare for an open house and art exhibition.

The Hawai‘i State Archives is joining the centennial commemoration of Queen Lili‘uokalani’s death with a unique viewing of Kingdom era flags, and, next week, an open house. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports a more complete picture is emerging of Hawai‘i’s last queen.

After decades of tracking socio-economic and educational statistics and trends, a UH Mānoa professor charges that people in Hawai‘i appear to be quite tolerant of ethnic inequality. Professor Jonathan Okamura says ethnic inequality here plays out in the same way racism does in other places. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Sometimes a few moments of quiet contemplation can really boost productivity. That’s what the Honolulu Museum at First Hawaiian Center is for. Right now, three exhibitions there at the corner of King and Bishop, offer some of Hawai‘i’s finest artists in new combinations. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa attended the opening of Abstractions in Paint, Wood, and Fiber.

Sustainability was the theme of this week’s “global summit” put together by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. With over nine million visitors projected this year, the Chair of the State Senate Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology told HPR’s Noe Tanigawa we may already have too many tourists. Senator Glenn Wakai says it’s time to re-think the industry, in the concluding report of our series “Traveling Money: Managing Hawai‘i’s Tourism Future.”

Hawai‘i’s last Queen, Lili‘uokalani, was born September 2, 1838, and died November 11, 1917. The centennial commemoration of her death is beginning this weekend at ‘Iolani Palace with a free celebration of her music, and an exhibit of revealing artifacts is also underway at UH Hamilton Library. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

A new Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art is highlighting connections between Hawai‘i artists of the 1950-s and ‘60’s and their brash counterparts in New York. The storied “Chateau Metcalf” cadre of local artists experienced America’s mid-century avant garde, then went on to shape Hawai‘i’s art and esthetics. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

In the 1940’s and 50’s, America’s audacious painters veered away from depicting the world as it looks, opting instead for interior worlds, or simple records of their actions. Abstract Expressionism was the first truly American modern art movement, and it was a huge psychological leap away from anything before it. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports a new show at the Honolulu Museum of Art shows Hawai‘i’s contribution to this world wide movement.

There are about 2 million people across the U.S. brewing beer at home, and two thirds of them joined the bandwagon since 2005. This growing phenomenon boasts thousands of clubs across the nation, but most often, it’s a handful of people banding together in garages, comparing notes, seeking and drinking remarkable beers. In HPR’s ongoing series on local craft brewing, Noe Tanigawa reports from a carport brewery in a cul de sac in Kāne‘ohe.

Hawai‘i fashion has an international profile that started with grass skirts and coconuts bras, through sarongs and Shaheen’s silks, then mu‘umu‘us, aloha shirts, and jams of the later twentieth century. Contemporary local fashion is now emerging and this week, for the first time, a native Hawaiian will debut his collection in New York’s Fashion Week. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

The number of breweries across the U.S. has more than doubled in the last five years. The national Brewers Association says Hawai‘i's fourteen craft breweries contributed well over 200 million dollars to the local economy in 2014. As part of her series on craft brews, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa discovered these small local businesses are part of a sea change in American culture.

In the 1960’s, internationally known artist Masami Teraoka made his reputation bridging cultures, blending classic Japanese Ukiyo-e subjects with golden arches, and other bits of Americana. On the eve of a two part retrospective at Koa Gallery, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa explains how Teraoka’s fascination with American culture connected him to Russia’s anti-Putin feminists, Pussy Riot.

Last year, the craft beer market continued its thirteen year upward trend, topping out at $23.5 billion dollars according to the national Brewers’ Association. In the U.S. as a whole, craft brew production doubled in the last 5 years to reach nearly 18 million barrels last year. As part of HPR’s ongoing series on craft brewing, Noe Tanigawa reports O‘ahu is tracking that pattern of growth.

Craft brewing is changing the social scene here in Honolulu. The national Brewers Association lists fourteen breweries in the Islands, with four breweries in Kaka‘ako alone. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa offers this first installment in a swing through that scene.